I am a lifetime “Desert Rat.” When not being paid as an archaeologist to be out in the Desert Southwest searching through the dust for the clues and artifacts left behind by the First Americans, I can be found hiking into some desolate canyon on my own time, just to see what there is to learn. I have spent my life around writers, archaeologists, educators, Indians, cowboys, farmers, ranchers and energy-exploration workers. The West. The Real West.

The places I’ve seen, the work I’ve done, and the extraordinary people I’ve run into along the way have painted the worldview of my writings.

I have stood at the locations of most of the scenes in The Thorn in Coyote’s Eye, my first work of fiction. Writing. It’s what I do.